HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Raytheon has acquired Pikewerks, a Madison-based cyber security company, it was announced today.

According to a statement from Raytheon, the purchase is to "further extend Raytheon's capabilities to defend against sophisticated cybersecurity threats facing customers in the intelligence community, Department of Defense and commercial organizations."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Raytheon said the transaction will not materially impact its total company sales or earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2011 or fiscal year 2012.

Pikewerks' founder and President Sandy Ring and CEO Michael Ring will remain with the company, Raytheon said in the statement. Sandy Ring started the company in the family's garage in Alexandria, Va., in 2003 and moved here in 2006.

Last year, Pikewerks was ranked 282nd on the annual Inc. 500 list of the country's fastest-growing private companies.

According to Raytheon, Pikewerks enhances Raytheon's comprehensive cybersecurity offerings, including a range of analysis and investigation capabilities with particular emphasis on insider threat protection, software protection and forensics.

Pikewerks brings one of the industry's largest repositories of kernel-level engineering talent on the Linux Operating System, Raytheon said.

"Like Raytheon, Pikewerks is built on the commitment to undertake the hardest problems and apply creativity and innovation to push the limits of technology," said Lynn Dugle, president of Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business. "Developers at Pikewerks are experts who have taken technology from concept to deployment, and we are excited to welcome them as members of our innovative Raytheon team."